My next attempt with HDR in real estate
One nice offshoot of my first take with HDR is that another agent asked me to shoot one of his listings. Of course I obliged and was determined to fix some of the things I didn’t like with my earlier shoot. In general, I am pleased with the results.
One thing that I am pleased with in these shots is that I did not blow out the windows as I did before. In my first attempt I was a bit lazy and just set the camera to bracket the exposures. This time, I metered the windows and then metered the darkest part of the room, then took a shot each stop in between. I like the results of this much better.
Of course, there are some things I would like to improve.
In the shot above, I feel the effect of the light on the right is too strong. On one hand, I like the light there. However I do not like the strong light on the wall and I need to figure out eventually a good way to get rid of it.
Kitchens are difficult rooms due to all of the reflections. I think I did decently here, though I would prefer to get rid of the reflection on the floor and the sink is a tad overexposed. I could probably clone out the reflection on the floor, but there are probably better ways. The next time I think I’ll try turning out the lights for one or two shots when I suspect reflections will be an issue. I am curious to see what Photomatix does in this case. Of course, here the reflections were coming from the window so it may not have helped.
One thing I would like to get better at is making the windows ‘pop’ more. I have read about ways to do this using exposure blending and I think I’ll try it out some time. With the pure HDR effect, I feel that the windows are a bit dull, though you can see out of them well.
I’m happy though that this is a step in the right direction. I have several other shoots already planned as Nelya has several more listings coming and a new agent will use me.
Related posts:
- Switching to HDR in real estate After a number of disagreements with my wife on how to light real estate photos, naturally my wife won. Therefore, we came to an agreement that she gets me a copy of Photomatix and I start taking pictures in HDR. Being not familiar very much with HDR, I used one...
- Continuing the HDR process As many of you know, I have switched my real estate photography to HDR. It has taken me a bit of time getting used to it but I do like it much better. In particular, I am able to shoot houses quicker - which makes a difference now that Nelya...
- New lessons in real estate While I haven’t discussed real estate photography here much during the last several weeks, I have been extremely busy photographing houses. The market has definitely picked up and I now photograph at least one or two houses a week - even though I currently only work with two agents! While...
- My new technique for real estate photography OK, I wouldn’t exactly call this technique “new” because I suspect a large number of real estate photographers already use it, but for me it is new. Before I get into explanations about the workflow, here is one of the shots. First the basics. This is not an HDR shot...
- Real Estate - Where to put the second light Recently I have started playing around with multiple off camera lights with my real estate photography. I use a Canon 580EX and 580EX II triggered with three Pocketwizard MultiMAX units. By the way, my wife wanted me to mention that this home has already sold, but if you would like...
Tags: exposure, HDR, photography, real estate